What’s in a name? A new piece on self-employment on Hippo Reads

A piece of mine on self-employment and language was picked up by Hippo Reads today <joy dance>. If you haven’t come across Hippo Reads, it’s a site that combines academic insight with topics to which we can all relate. This is exactly the kind of writing I enjoy the most, whether I’m reading it or writing it. (On a similar note, a lovely writer who bought me lunch today gave me a copy of Delayed Gratification magazine – it’s sort of tautological to say I’m looking forward to reading it later, isn’t it?).

Anyhow, back to the piece on in question:

Sometime before the last election, David Cameron wanted us all to know what really got him going (and also that he was a human being capable of emotions, not just a C3PO-bot made of ham). He gave the now infamous “that pumps me up” speech, all about how entrepreneurs were the people that got him most excited, with their passion, their commitment to business, their have-a-go heroism.

Apparently it’s not just entrepreneurs getting the government excited, but also the self-employed—as Iain Duncan Smith said in 2014: “The growth in self-employment is both a sign and a result of the economic recovery this Government is delivering. We should welcome this sign that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the UK.”

When you think of an entrepreneur or someone self-employed, what picture comes to mind? Is it a young hipster, sitting in a café with their Macbook, typing furiously as they run their multi-million dollar digital start-up between lattes? Is it David Cameron’s passionate business people, rebuilding the UK economy one SME at a time?